Traffic on the Internet has grown dramatically over the last decade and continues to grow. Routers play a critical role in sustaining that growth. Various protocols exist for routers to communicate together. Typically, the protocols allow routers to identify neighbors and costs associated with routing packets to those neighbors. Such information allows the routers to construct a topology map and to select an optimal route for forwarding network packets. Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) is an example of a routing protocol for Internet Protocol networks.
In some cases, for maintenance or other reasons, it is necessary to shift traffic away from a router or a group of routers. Such traffic shifting is often manually accomplished with no set techniques established. More efficient traffic shift options are needed.